IN BOOKLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 11 August 1928, Page 6

IN BOOKLAND

Sir Hall Caine is -spending six hours •v day on' a literary task which lias occupied iiim off and on for thirty-six vears, and the nature of which he refuses to reveal. Perhaps it is significant (says an exchange) that lus desk is covered with books on biblical subjects.

A -personal note in Airs Rosita For be-’s “Adventure”: “An old, a very old sheikh of the Syrian Aletouehs, offered me a whole tribe if I would wed him but with the proviso, Aou must sit still for three months to get fat.

According to Alichael Joseph, the first literary agent was Dr. Samuel Johnson, who went on a visit to Oliver Goldsmith and came away with the AIS. of “The Vicar of Wakefield, which lie afterwards sold to a publisher .or £BO. .. Dr. Hugo West, the Argentine millionaire novelisu, who won the Spanish Axa-demy prizes wit-h liis recently published novel, “Black Valley,” is travelling round the world with his wife and ten children.

Air John Buchan, ALP., has coznpleted a new life of the great Alarquis of Alontrose, on which he has been en-o-a.ced for some years. The book will °e published by Alessrs. Nelson in September.

The Grubb Group is the curious title by which the latest coterie of London artists wishes to be known. They have chosen for their headquarters a well-known Soho restaurant, and propose to exhibit the work of members.

Lord Beaverbrcok, in addition to printing many piquant recollections of his own, in his recently published memoirs, has enjoyed ’ the privilege of drawing largely from Bonar Law’s diary. The general effect of his disclosures has been rather disturbing. They have shown how many decisions of the utmost importance were taken during the war without the public of even Parliament being allowed to know anything about them.

Dr. A. G. W. Rosenbaeh, the famous bibliophile, bought between £300,000 and £400,000 worth of literary treasures during his recent two months visit to Europe. When interviewed he .stated that he considered £15,400 for the manuscript of “Alice in Wonderland” cheap, and that he would have crossed £20,000 if necessary. He thought, however, that England lost a greater treasure when it allowed Dr. John Ward’s Diary, with its allusions to Shakespeares and Drayton, to leave the country for £10,580.

It- is reported from Wellington that “a quarterly magazine devoted to the development of art in its various phases in our own country” will appear in five or six weeks, with Mr <J. A. Mairis as literary editor. The name of the magazine, ‘ ‘Art in New' Zealand,” suggests, what is indeed the fact, that it will follow' closely the aims and style of ‘‘Art in Australia,” having reproductions of New Zealand art in colour, sepia, half-tone, and line, with literary and other special features

Francis Brett Young, whose novel, “The Key of Life,” was published recently in London and New’ York simultaneously, lias received the James Tait Black Memorial Award dor his last jear’s novel, “Love Is Enough.’ The James Tait Black Memorial Awards (there are tw'O— one for the best novel and one for the best biography) were founded by the late Mrs Janet Coats Black in memory of her husband, a partner in the great London publishing firm of A. and C. Black, Ltd. A fund of £II,OOO was set aside, and the income from this fund, after expenses are paid, is used for the two prizes. These now amount to £250. Former winners, of this prize fiction have been Hugh Walpole, D. H. Law'rence, Walter de la Mare, David Garnett, Arnold Bennett, E. M. Forster, and Liam O’ Flaherty.

The Mark Twain Association is offering a prize of fifty dollars for the ten best quotations from Mark Twain’s hooks. The contest closes on October Ist, 1928, and the prize will be given on Sunday, December 2nd, 1928. Requests for’ further information about this contest should he addressed to Mrs Ida Bentley Judd, 1 West Sixtyninth Street, New' York City. The Mark Twain Association w'as formed to perpetuate tlie memory of Mark Twain, and its purpose in conducting this contest is to increase the interest in the reading of“liis books. The ultimate object of the Association is to establish a Mark Twain Professorship of Humour and the Comic Spirit in one of the American universities. .